(406c) Development of Materials for the Direct Air Capture of CO2 Under Unconventional Conditions

CO₂ emissions due to anthropogenic activities are the chief cause of increasing global temperatures due to global warming. One potentially scalable solution to combat climate change is the entrapment of CO₂ from air (known as direct air capture (DAC)) and subsequent permanent geological sequestration. Efforts have been underway for the past decade to identify existing materials and design new materials that can extract CO₂ from air. However, most of the studies have focused on studying these indoors under dry conditions, which are not the best representations of the the natural environment where direct air capture systems will be installed. The performance of DAC materials under conditions typically encountered outdoors is unknown. To this end, we sought to characterize the behavior of known and novel adsorbent materials for CO₂ capture under DAC relevant CO₂ concentrations under varied, unconventional conditions. Materials are initially identified by screening studies, followed by characterization over multiple adsorption/desorption cycles to assess stability during use. The most promising materials are subjected to widely varied adsorption/desorption conditions to find zones of optimal performance.